Wedge watched as one of his pilots zoomed around in their new toy - the Jedi starfighter he had picked up on Geonosis. "Commander;" said a voice from behind him. Wedge turned and saw Kasan Moor standing there with a datapad.
Wedge frowned. "What do you have there, Kasan?"
Kasan chewed her lip before saying, "This is a transfer request. Mon Mothma asked me to be one of her personal advisers on board the Independence and I think I'm going to take the position."
Wedge nodded, a hundred questions buzzing through his mind. In the end, he smiled and said, "I understand. It was great serving with you, Kasan. We'll miss you."
Kasan took the datapad back from him and hugged him. "My shuttle leaves in a few ours, Wedge. I need to pack. I'll be around to say goodbye to the Rogues."
Wedge looked her in her eyes. "You need to say goodbye to Luke too."
It was no secret that the two were no longer together. Kasan cleared her throat and said, "I will."
After the door had slid shut, Wedge turned back to the viewport and watched the Delta-7 zip by again. He didn't remember whether it was Hobbie, Karie or Wes in the fight now but he was glad they were having fun. "Commander."
Wedge turned and saw Winter standing there. "What can I do for you, Agent Retrac?"
"We have a mission for you. It's only going to be a quick one, hopefully. In truth, it's a scouting mission."
"Alright;" said Wedge, "what am I scouting, Winter?"
Winter motioned towards the door. "Best to hear from General Rieeken, sir."
Wedge nodded and they headed towards the briefing room.
General Rieeken gave him a brisk nod. "We don't have much right now, Wedge. Truth is, there is a new Tibanna Gas processing facility in the energy corridors of Destrillion. All we need from you is confirmation, sensor and scanner readings. Don't engage unless you have to - and I mean that, Commander Antilles."
Wedge couldn't help but chuckle. "Come on, General! It's me."
"Exactly;" growled Rieeken. "You'll be using an RZ-1 A-wing. It's missile magazines will be filled with seeker concussion missiles. Go fast, get good scans and be very careful. Three hours behind you, we will have a trio of MC80 Star Cruisers and four squadrons, one of which will be one-man Y-wings. They'll be moving through the area and going by Dubrillion before another hyperspace jump. They'll be heading to reinforce and resupply one of our fleets. You'll join them later to refuel before your A-wing and then return here."
"Of course, Sir."
Twenty minutes later found Wedge striding towards the A-wing waiting for him. As he did, the Delta-7 Jedi Starfighter come in and landed. Out jumped Tycho. "We got a mission, sir, or are you taking a turn?"
Wedge chuckled, "I just have a quick scouting run to deal with. It shouldn't be too dangerous. You guys have fun, but you had better not crash my new toy."
"You got it, sir;" said Wes Janson as he hopped in the cockpit of the Jedi Starfighter.
Wedge chuckled and hopped in the A-wing. With a few quick switch flips, he was powered up. The diagnostic was quick and he took the fighter out. Within minutes after that, he was in hyperspace.
As Wedge dropped out of hyperspace, the twin worlds of Destrillion and Dubrillion half-shined in the distance. The sun was off to starboard, partially illuminating the two globes. The planet in the fore-space was Destrillion, a dirty looking ball with wispy yellow-brown clouds. Destrillion was a turbulent world with little to nothing going for it. What it did have were a series of energy tunnels that went through it that allowed convoys to go through it, helping avoid an asteroid field.
Beyond Destrillion was the blue, green and brown twin, Dubrillion. It was a moderate world with a north and south pull and vast oceans. It was a prosperous world.
Wedge angled towards the world in the fore-space, his fighter's long range scanner searching for the massive energy signature of the energy tunnel that went through the turbulent atmosphere and above the barren, uninhabitable world below. He was still a decent distance away from the planet when his scanners pinged. "Well, how about that. How is that thing being powered, I wonder?"
He streaked towards the planet and prepared to enter the atmosphere - only to find that there gravity level was near non-existent - just enough to cause the storms to stay within the atmosphere. "Geez!" he muttered, "what is with this planet?"
The entrance to the energy tunnel was wide open in front of him and he went right in. Suddenly, it felt like he was in space again and Wedge cursed as he corrected his instruments. There must have been anti-gravity generators in the energy ring links.
The tunnel was long and Wedge was forced to slow way down to avoid smashing into the energy barriers surrounding him. To make things even more difficult, the energy fields completely scrambled his sensors and scanners. "Son of a-, of all the blasted-" and Wedge cursed over and over, getting more and more anxious as he went.
His scanners didn't work and he was forced to fly by sight and sight alone. It was a breath of relief when it seemed like a massive cavern in the energy tunnel opened. The energy fields still surrounded him but they were kilometers to either side. The scanners even cleared enough to inform him and show him that he was surrounded by energy with two entrances/exits. It also revealed that there was a large tibanna gas tank platform and about twenty-four TIE fighters and they weren't the regular ones. They had the standard eye-ball shaped cockpit capsule but instead of the oblong hexagonal solar panels, they had four, pointed panels that went forward to points. They were faster than the standard TIE, as fast as a TIE Interceptor. Instantly, four of them pealed off their course and moved to engage. "Oh boy;" muttered Wedge as he switched to his missile tubes.
His standard targeting computer changed from the standard rebel starfighter targeting screen to a screen that identified the TIEs. To Wedge's pleasant surprise, the computer beeped four times and all four of the targets lit up with a locking signal. "Well how about that?"
He pulled the trigger and four missiles fired in rapid succession. The four fighters exploded. This time, eight more pealed off. "Okay well that trick worked once. I doubt it will work again if I use it like that."
Instead, Wedge angled his flight and sped up to attack speed. Instead of going for the eight fighters approaching him, he gunned four the other twelve in reserve. He targeted another four with his missiles and tried to blaze away with his laser cannons. Though it didn't surprise him, it did annoy him when his blasts splashed off of shields. "Of course! Why not add shields?"
Even so, another four were down. Lasers splashed his own and he spun out of the line of fire, checking the status. His shields, which were already pretty weak when compared to other Alliance starfighters, were down to sixty percent. He needed some kind of cover and all there was for him was the gas platform. Tibanna gas, when not in the carbon frozen form, was highly combustible. "This could quite literally blow up in my face. GAH! I really need to stop talking to myself!"
As he approached, he locked on to one of the tanks. Tilting his fighter, he managed to squeeze between two tanks without even scratching the tanks. Just as he got through, he fired one of his missiles. With a spin, he was clear. The missile circled around and slammed into the tank. Six of the eight pursuing fighters were caught up in the explosion. Wedge bore down on one and blazed away at the two others. One went up in flames before they realized Wedge was there. The other tried to bank but didn't realize it was too close to the energy barrier and slammed right into it. Wedge managed to pull away, skidding very lightly off the barrier. "Too close, too close, TOO CLOSE!" said Wedge anxiously.
The last eight TIE's were moving to engage and Wedge smiled. Switching to missiles, he targeted them and fired every single missile in his internal magazines. As expected, the TIE's tried to fire on a few of them before spinning away, releasing countermeasures as they did. Wedge pick one and fired at it. The fighter was unable to avoid the missile and Wedge's laser and it went up in flames. Two more somehow managed to collide, exploding. The missiles did manage to catch up to another two of them but the others were still ahead of their missiles. Three TIE Hunters were firing at him, one of them using ion cannons.
Wedge decided to target that one. Trying a trick that Luke had taught him, he gunned his portside engine and gunned his starboard reverse thruster. It caused him to spin around before he cut both off and fired by sight, not even using his targeting computer. In truth, he only wanted to scatter them but he did manage to drop one of the fighters' shields before it spun away. Gunning his engines again, he shot after it and fired even before his computer locked.
The TIE went up in flames. Two were left. Both made for one of the energy tunnels, attempting to escape and, quite probably, warn their comrades. Wedge chased after them, hoping that they would lead him to this Imperial tibanna processing Installation. One of them went just a little too fast and started to bounce like a shock ball off the sides of the tunnel before it took too much damage and exploded. Wedge followed the other, waiting for his sketchy targeting systems to ping. It did just as the tunnel widened and there was an exit ahead. Wedge blew away the final TIE and headed towards the exit. Then he saw them, a massive Imperial transport convoy. There were heavy transports, light cruisers, bulk freighters and, of course, a TIE escort. "Okay;" said Wedge and put power to scanners and engines.
Faster than he had ever pushed it, he scanned every single ship. They never even got a shot off. Wedge grinned and activated his long range comms unit. "General Rieeken, this is Wedge Antilles; I have the scans. And preparing to rendezvous with the Alliance group."
It took a moment before Rieeken came back. "Good work, Rogue Leader. Sending you the coordinates now."
"Copy that, heading there now."
He spun towards the coordinates provided when his comms flashed on an Alliance frequency he didn't recognize. "This is Rogue Leader to unknown Alliance ship, do you need help?"
"Rogue Leader, this is the Alliance Cruiser Ultima: we need assistance! We're in orbit over Dubrillion now and being fired on by an Imperial weapon. It seems to work much like the Death Star super laser - a concentrated beam of energy. Sir, it cut through our shields and sliced off a chunk of out ship. We need your support!"
Wedge cursed and replied, "Ultima, this is Rogue Leader - I'm alone out here but, if you have a Y-wing ready for me, I'll gladly lend a hand."
"We'll have it fueled and ready for you, Rogue Leader - and thank you."
Wedge cut the comms. "Oh this just keeps getting better and better;" he growled before keying Rieeken's frequency again. The general was not going to like this.